Survive in Azure Files

As for the rest, I'll worry about it after I get back.

Chapter 58: Start a Family with Liyin and Himari

It was almost evening when we dragged our tired bodies back to Millennium Science and Technology Academy.

On the way back, we inevitably encountered a battle with the patrolling white and yellow robot army, but fortunately it was not intense and went smoothly overall.

After entering the school gate, Amy said she was too hot and wanted to take a shower, so she left first. I went back to their club activity room with the game development department.

Because the girls had been working hard in the examination hall in the morning and fighting on the battlefield in the afternoon, they were extremely tired both physically and mentally. After a brief discussion, we decided to disband today and reunite tomorrow.

However, for adults, there are still important things to deal with next.

Conference room on the top floor of Millennium Tower.

I pushed open the door and saw two students standing at the top of Millennium, already waiting there.

One is as white as jade, amiable and amiable; the other is as black as ink, cold as ice. The two beauties with completely opposite styles sit on both sides of the temporary round table, forming a sharp contrast.

Himari smiled, "Ah, you're here, teacher."

Liyin frowned: "Teacher, have you changed your clothes?"

"Hmm. How's it going? Is it suitable?"

The first thing I did after leaving the ruins was to go to the nearest clothing store and buy a shirt to get by.

Li Yin was stunned for a moment: "From a rational point of view, the answer is yes. But...are you serious when you ask this?"

Indeed, I asked a useless question. I am handsome, well-proportioned, and a clothes hanger. As long as I wear decent men's clothing that conforms to the public's aesthetic standards, it will naturally be suitable for me.

Sitting down in the empty seat prepared for me, I smiled and said, "It was just a joke. Thank you for your concern, Liyin."

"...I don't have too much intention in this regard."

Seeing Liyin's eyes wandering, I couldn't help laughing:

Where does the tsundere come from?

Another person present laughed out loud. "Pfft, who are you pretending for? Yourself?"

Liyin's face suddenly darkened: "Hiru, if you want to start a war, I'm always ready to fight you."

These two people are really incompatible, luckily I am here to mediate.

I think, as a teacher, I have the obligation to ease the conflicts between students. In short, let's set a small goal first, and try to make them become good sisters who share the same quilt.

When I think of this, I sincerely feel that I have a long way to go and a heavy responsibility to shoulder.

"Stop for a moment, both of you. To put it simply," I said seriously, "As Liyin guessed, my clothes were damaged in the battle."

"Ah, it seems that this exploration is more dangerous than we expected." Himari no longer cared to argue with Liyin, "Teacher, please stop keeping us in suspense."

Liyin no longer bothered with Hiruzen: "With Amy as a guard, the teacher who was not involved in the battle and was only responsible for commanding was almost injured. What happened?"

I then told my two beautiful allies what happened in the ruins today:

A mysterious AI who wants us to take Alice away has invaded Alice's body;

After the strange declaration, an attack was launched against us with the intention of "exclusion";

The hacking drones provided by Hikari were used, but they were ineffective, so they had to fight head-on;

A mysterious robot with a strange shape and emitting purple-red light suddenly appeared to assist Key in besieging us;

Also, another giant machine appears at the end and launches missile attacks at the already defeated Key.

Himari and Rion sometimes listened, sometimes asked questions, and sometimes pondered deeply.

Finally, after I blurred my own special abilities and made the rest of my statement as objective as possible, both of them turned solemn and there was silence in the meeting room.

"...Himari," Liyin suddenly asked, "What did you think after listening to the teacher's report?"

"Oh, Liyin, you have already made some assumptions. I guess you and I should have come up with the same answer this time."

Li Yin nodded: "Yes. Since the teacher has provided us with such important information, we should also share the information we have with the teacher."

Himari teased, "Haha~ Even this requires the opinion of a sickly pretty girl? Where is your dictatorial power? I can't help it. This time, I will vote for you."

The two people who reached an agreement smiled at each other, and then both felt a little subtly disgusted.

These two girls are completely opposite to each other. Although they don't get along with each other at all, they seem to have a strange tacit understanding.

The word "enemy" is probably not enough to describe their relationship, and it would be even more unrealistic to say that they are "friends".

Perhaps, we can only say that Himari Rin is an enemy who is both a friend and an enemy.

The more I understand the bond between the two, the more I feel the urge to act - I feel it is a sense of mission that arises from my own noble sentiments.

"To put it bluntly, the machine that the teacher encountered, fighting alongside the being you call 'Alice', is most likely..."

Li Yin paused for a moment when she spoke here. "It's an 'incomprehensible army' that invaded from an unknown area, right?"

What is this new setting?

I corrected her a little: "It's Alice whose body is occupied by Key."

Liyin did not comment on this.

Himari followed up and explained, "It exists in the ruins. Like the ruins, its origin, cause, and purpose are all unknown. It is a mechanical creation that is completely different from the theoretical basis and internal structure of modern Kivotos. Perhaps it is the technology of the ancients, or perhaps it came from the outside world. The information we have now is not complete."

It sounds impressive... and in retrospect, it actually is quite strong.

Ordinary military robots are almost no match for students, and can only compete with them by relying on absolute numerical advantage.

However, the "invincible army" was able to entangle the game development department with that number of troops, which shows how high its combat effectiveness is.

Himari stroked her delicate face and sighed regretfully, "So, this little toy carefully made by this genius hacker girl can't find the intrusion port. After all, even the programming language is different. Of course, if I do it myself, I will definitely find a way~"

I wrote down the new information, but couldn't find a specific direction, so I thought divergently, and suddenly I had an idea -

Could this be related to the reason why key misunderstood me?

For example, after connecting to Momoi's game console, I roughly understood the huge difference between the programs of modern Kivotos and what she used. As a result, my power directly bypassed the firewall and popped up rogue windows, just like she directly invaded Alice's body...

The more I think about it, the more I think this guess is reliable.

My impromptu idea actually led to such an unexpected surprise. Thinking about it carefully, it turned out that I had misunderstood before. Yuka and Xiaoyu's powers are actually quite useful.

But one is enough, two is overflow, don't add a third.

Liyin continued, "As for the robot army patrolling the ruins and bombarding Alice from a distance at the end, I haven't found any relevant information. Perhaps they are out-of-control robots that have existed since ancient times and are still wandering around today."

Himari agreed. "After all, this is an abandoned sewer that is home to all kinds of forgotten artifacts, just like the environment where Big Sister grew up. It's normal for things to exist that we don't know about... Why are you looking at me like that? I was just joking."

Does this person feel uncomfortable if he doesn't attack Liyin?

Retracting her murderous gaze, Liyin pondered for a moment and calmed down: "Let's get back to the topic. First, let's get to know each other, Hinami. There is only one reason why we can sit here like this after being at war for so many years."

Himari nodded slightly and said, "Same purpose."

"That's right. So, there's no need to engage in boring and low-level provocations."

"Oh." Hikari raised an eyebrow and asked Liyin, "Are you anxious now?"

I could see that Liyin's face looked normal, but her chest was heaving violently.

I coughed, "Himari, Liyin is right."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Tell me the purpose."

Himari said seriously, "BIG SISTER and I both want to find out Alice's true identity."

Li Yin, who didn't know if she had completely calmed down, asked, "Now, how is your progress?"

"Looking up information. What about you?"

"Same. But." Liyin changed the subject, "Although our independent research has not made any progress, thanks to the information provided by the teacher, we have been able to determine a key point."

Himari agreed, "Yes. There is a deep connection between Alice and the 'Unsolved Army'."

"That's totally enough."

"...Hey, you don't want to..."

Before Himari, who was frowning, could finish her words, Liyin turned to me and said casually:

"Teacher, let's get rid of that being you call 'Alice'."

"……what?"

I'm not sure if my ears heard it wrong.

Himari put her hands over her face, her tone was both annoyed and helpless: "I knew it, a dog will always eat shit."

Neither Liyin nor I paid attention to her verbal attack at this moment.

Li Yin asked doubtfully, "Is what I said difficult to understand?"

I stared at the strange red eyes of the seminar chairperson: "When you say 'deal with', you don't mean to kill Alice, do you?"

"how could be?"

I just breathed a sigh of relief at Liyin's answer, and the next moment, the second half of Liyin's sentence reached my ears.

"It's just a machine, not a student. So, it's more appropriate to say that she disappeared from this world."

"Hey, enough is enough."

Himari said coldly, "Have you lost your brain, the only thing that can be considered as an advantage in your body? Alice is registered in the list of students of Millennium, and you personally stamped the admission application. Now you say she is a machine, not a student?"

"Ming, Xing, Ri, Ju!"

Even a clay figure has some temper.

Liyin was just too rational, but that didn't mean she wouldn't get angry. She slammed the table and stood up: "I've tolerated you for a long time!"

"Oh, it turns out that our great leader of the millennium still retains human emotions." Himari sneered, "Why? Everyone must follow your logical framework that is entirely based on your cold-blooded nature?"

"You don't understand the current situation! No matter from which perspective, eliminating this dangerous factor from Millennium and Kivotos is the only correct choice!"

"If you have paranoid delusions, go find a doctor! If Millennium can't cure you, go to Holy Trinity to find the Knights of Rescue. Believe me, if you let their leader punch your primitive head full of vicious, ignorant and stubborn ideas, you might even be able to recover!"

When Ju started to insult her that day, Liyin was doomed to fail.

Seeing that Liyin's eyes were red from anger and she might cry at any moment, I started to mediate:

"Hiru, let's talk about reason, don't make personal attacks."

"Hmph, what's there to talk about? Liyin and I have never been on the same page. The result of our huge difference in thinking patterns is that neither of us can convince the other."

The implication is that, knowing that the outcome will be a bad one, it is better to attack directly rather than wasting words, right?

Why does it feel like it makes sense?

"Hehe~ But, after all, we are in front of the teacher." Himari, who had just been madly attacking Li Yin, put on an elegant and polite smile, "As the proud high-class flower of the millennium, you still have to maintain a perfect image~"

...Pu Xinnu, you are really a nobody and have a crush on me.

"Anyway, both of you calm down and calm down."

Li Yin said calmly: "I have always been calm."

OK, OK, OK, you are the calmest. Afterwards, hide in bed, don't cry for a while recalling how you were insulted and had no power to fight back, and then smile foolishly at the thought of "if I had scolded you back like this at that time".

Meanwhile, Himari on the side just sneered.

"I just thought about it carefully and I think I understand the crux of the problem."

I asked Liyin, "Liyin, do you think Alice is a living being?"

"if not?"

Li Yin asked in confusion: "I explained from the beginning that it is just a machine, not a real student. If you have the illusion that it has emotions like humans, it is just the ELIZA effect."

"Perhaps," I said, "but isn't there a possibility that Alice, AL-1S, really has intelligence?"

"……what?"

I said slowly, "It is not rational to make a hasty conclusion without observing an entity whose structure and principles are incomprehensible and has not done anything wrong."

Liyin fell into silence.

"I know you want to protect everyone," I said as gently as possible, "but if Alice really has feelings, she is also a member of Millennium, right?"